Criticism > Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism > Volsunga Saga - Marianne E. Kalinke (essay date 1990)

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Marianne E. Kalinke (essay date 1990)

SOURCE: Kalinke, Marianne E. “A Paradigm for Bridal-Quest Romance.” In Bridal-Quest Romance in Medieval Iceland, pp. 25-30. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990.

[In the following excerpt, Kalinke examines the influence of the Volsunga Saga on the “May-December” marriage trope as it appears in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar.]

The Tristan tale may justifiably be considered the medieval European bridal-quest romance par excellence. Neither Brother Robert's Tristrams saga ok Ísondar, however, nor the anonymous Tristrams saga ok Ísoddar is exemplary for bridal-quest narrative in Iceland. The acme of Icelandic bridal-quest romance is Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, which was presumably composed toward the end of the thirteenth century.¹ The bridal quest is the saga's raison d'être, and in the quadripartite structure, each section dominated by a...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Dorothy M. Hoare (essay date 1937)
   2. Lloyd Wendell Esheleman (essay date 1971)
   3. Hartley S. Spatt (essay date 1977)
   4. George K. Anderson (essay date 1982)
   5. Marianne E. Kalinke (essay date 1990)
   6. Jesse L. Byock (essay date 1990)
   7. Stephen A. Mitchell (essay date 1991)
   8. Gloriana St. Clair (lecture date 1992)
   9. Robert A. Albano (essay date 1994)
   10. Paul Battles (essay date 1994)
   11. Jenny Jochens (essay date 1996)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright